Netanyahu invited for White House talks

Published May 26th, 2010 - 16:18 GMT

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington for talks with the U.S. President

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington for talks with the U.S. President Obama on regional peace and security. "On behalf of the President I am happy to extend an invitation to come and visit President Obama in the White House for a working meeting to discuss our shared security interests, as well as our close co-operation in achieving peace between Israel and its neighbors," Emanuel told Netanyahu.

According to Haaretz, Israeli sources said that Obama's decision to invite Netanyahu to Washington was an attempt "to obliterate the memory of the two leaders' previous White House meeting in March," when the press was barred and the White House did not even release a joint photo of the two leaders.